Project 3: Rainwater Harvesting in Semi-Arid Brazil

Rural commmunities around the world struggle to access clean water, especially in arid and semi-arid regions where water is scarce. In Northeastern Brazil, many communities rely on a combination of deep wells (which are expensive to access and often yield saline water) and shallow surface reservoirs (which often dry up during dry years). In response, the federal government of Brazil launched a program (Projeto 1 Milhão de Cisternas – One Million Cisterns Project) to promote rainwater to capture water during the rainy season and store it for use during the dry season. The project also aimed to build local economies through use of local materials and construction techniques.

While the project has been successful in many ways, it has also faced challenges. A particular challenge is that during droughts the cisterns may not be fully rechared, leading to inadequate water supply during the dry season.

In this project, your group will use climate data, mass-balance techniques, and computer programming to size a rainwater harvesting system for a single house in Northeastern Brazil.

Further details will be provided. You will produce a Quarto document that includes your analysis and recommendations.